Category: Football

The most frustrating thing about the fact that Argentina have had The Wrong Manager for the last two and a half years is that they never had to lose the right one in the first place. As winter moved towards spring of 2016 down here in the southern hemisphere, Gerardo Martino – frustrated at club... Continue Reading →

Argentina take on Venezuela in Madrid on Friday evening, with Lionel Messi returning to the national side for the first time since they were eliminated at the hands of France in last year's World Cup. The starting XI will feature no fewer than three Martínezes: Defensa y Justicia defender Lisandro, Atlanta United playmaker Gonzalo (replacing... Continue Reading →

The twenty-second round of Superliga action ended on Monday night with yet another late winner for Defensa y Justicia, who emerged victorious from a five-goal thriller against Banfield thanks to Nicolás Fernández's hat trick. The win meant that Defensa have qualified for the Copa Libertadores for the first time in their history – they'll be in... Continue Reading →

Argentina's five Copa Libertadores group stage representatives all started their qualification efforts this week – and all with rather frustrating results. There were goalless draws all round on Tuesday: Godoy Cruz got a creditable one at home to Olimpia of Paraguay, San Lorenzo visited Melgar of Peru, where both teams absolutely stank the place out,... Continue Reading →

Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni announced his latest squad on Thursday, ahead of two friendlies which act as warm ups for the Copa América in Brazil in a few months' time. The headline news is that Lionel Messi's break from international football is coming to an end: some outlets had reported earlier in the week that... Continue Reading →

Alianza Lima v River Plate (Wednesday, 19:30 local time/EST, 21:30 ART, 00:30 Thursday GMT) The euphoria of the epic extra-time victory at ‘home’ in the Bernabéu back in December is gone if certainly not forgotten, given the identity of their opponents in that match, for River Plate. The hard work of defending their Copa Libertadores... Continue Reading →

There were two Superliga games on Friday and just one on Saturday, due to a thunderstorm sweeping over Greater Buenos Aires in the early hours of Saturday which caused San Lorenzo v Atlético Tucumán and Estudiantes (who are playing home games in Quilmes at the moment) v Newell's Old Boys to be called off. The... Continue Reading →

Monday saw two games to bring to a close the sixth round of Superliga action. In Mar Del Plata, Aldosivi got a 2-0 win over Belgrano courtesy of a Cristan Chávez brace, to remain well clear of the relegation battle. Later, Racing hosted Unión and had to work hard but took the points to remain... Continue Reading →